New Sitter, new journey

This week Bella has started with a new sitter. Eric and I decided a few months ago that we wanted Bella in a new environment with more children and more room to run around in. I had been really reluctant to start looking, as she has been with Simone since she was 4 months old. Bella was only with 2 other children at Simone's and both were boys. We are so grateful to her as she helped to raise Bella for the past year and a half. Not to mention, she has kept our baby girl pretty healthy. However, now that Isabella is older and really thrives on learning new things, we figured it was time to make the big switch. Lucky for us, our good friends the Cox's started a new sitter they loved for their baby and referred us to her. Our other friends who I used to work with as a teacher at my school, use the same sitter. In fact, 3 of the children who go to this sitter are teachers' children. So, I brought Isabella by to meet her and get a feel for the place. Bella loved it! She has a backyard with slides, swings, etc. She did not want to leave! Eric and I brought her by a 2nd time, and again she loved it :D
Tuesday was the big test though. This would be the day that Eric would actually leave her. As soon as Bernie (the sitter) opened the door, Bella went right to her. Bella gave Daddy a kiss and said "bye daddy". Eric said she even helped close the door on Eric ! I checked in on her 3 times that day and she did great. Bernie was pleased that she never shed a tear and did so well. Having worked with children for many years, I know that sometimes the 2nd day can be the real test of how the child will separate from their parent. This is usually because the child now knows what to expectand that Mommy or Daddy is leaving. However, Wednesday she did great as well. Eric and I could not be more pleased. She loves the new sitter, loves the children, and is just so happy to be there. Bernie is a nice Hispanic Christian woman who I can tell has a real knack with children. She brought Bella to church on Ash Wednesday, which I love :D We are so excited to see Bella's progress with Bernie and her new friends.

Valentine's Day 2010

Before Isabella, Valentine's Day was all about Eric and I. Now of course things have changed! Eric and I still did celebrate the special day on Saturday with dinner and a movie, which was nice. On Sunday, Eric had to work so it left Bella and I to get things done for our Valentine's dinner and prayer and candle lighting in honor of Isabella's baptism anniversary. First, I made her and I blueberry pancakes..yum! We then got started on making Valentine's cards for Daddy, Nino Stevie, and Nanni. She loves to do anything where she gets to help so she sat down on the table and helped make each and every card. She loved sprinkling the glitter :) Then it was time to make the cupcakes. She loved mixing the batter and adding all the ingredients. She loves to help make salads or anything involving food :) I let her taste the batter a few times and when it was time to take the batter away, she cried :( A picture is below, it's cute!
It was then time for her nap while I started dinner and set the table. I made Chicken and mushroom Fettucine. Yum!! As I was making dinner, Eric came home and I had him wake Bella from her nap. Together they made the Caesar Salad. Nino and Nanni joined us for dinner and Bella gave them each their cards. After dinner, we lit Bella's Baptism candle and I read the prayer that we have to read every year and we each promised to continue to teach her all about God and our faith. It was very sweet. Eric and Steve did some work in my laundry room while Nani, Bella, and I to frosted the cupcakes. Bella loved them! My little girl definitely has a sweet tooth she inherited from her Daddy.
It was such a good and long day. It was so sweet to celebrate it with our loved ones and for Isabella to start our family traditions. Happy Valentine's Day to all!






CRYING BECAUSE I TOOK AWAY THE CUPCAKE BATTER

The Hoover's have moved!

Two weeks ago, we moved in to a new home. We are so excited to have gained an extra room for the new baby, to have a bigger backyard, and live in a much nicer area. We love it! The move was not so fun as I am pregnant and could not do much. In fact, while Eric was cleaning the old house, I decided to move some boxes and was not watching where I was going and fell down the hallway. I was a little freaked at first since I am pregnant, but a suitcase in the hall broke my fall. Now I have a softball size bruise on my leg! So needless to say, I did not move another box thereafter :)
We had 4 men moving on the big day, and I am so grateful for them. Eric was also a trooper and after a day of moving, went back to the old house and cleaned until midnight. Then, he woke up the next morning and went back and cleaned the carpets. YAY Eric! Being pregnant does have a few benefits :)
Overall, the move was okay and we have finally settled in to the new home. Bella had no problem with the transition and is doing great. Here are some pictures of the new house....

OUR LIVING ROOM ALMOST DONE

All is well

Friday I had my 19 week appointment. My Dr. told me that my lab results were in and the ultrasound pictures were fine. Once the Dr. had got a hold of them, they determined that his face was fine and were able to see all of his facial features fine. YAY! I also was told I have a 1 and 5500 chance of having a child with Down Syndrome (which is awesome). So, I am no longer worried about my little man :D I am so glad all is well with him. My kids like to give me a little scare!
I have not gained a single pound as of yet, which is so odd since I have to now unbutton my top button on my pants and just feel uncomfortable already. My boy is measuring in the high range for length (no surprise there),in fact 2 weeks ahead of schedule! So, there is obviously no need to worry that he isn't growing. My blood pressure was good, and all is good. We are so excited! Now we get to do the fun part...shop for our son!
we also moved this weekend which I will blog about later, basically it was terrible! Oh well, our baby is fine and that's all that matters....

IT'S A........

Yesterday was our BIG ultrasound. This is how it went.. I am always a nervous wreck before each and every ultrasound, and this time was no different. We brought Isabella with us because we had not made other arrangements for her as we thought we would have my sister and Dad to take her out of the room if need be. Due to circumstances, they were not able to come. I really thought she would be fine because she has been to one of my other ultrasounds and she did okay. Anyway, the minute we got inside and they put the machine on me she screamed off the top of her lungs. Not a whiny scream, but an "I'm scared, what are you doing to my Mommy?" scream. So, Eric had to not only take her out of the room, but out of the building. He was pretty upset that he was unable to be in the room, and so was I. Anyway, they were able to take measurements of the head, legs, see the heart, see the way the blood traveled in the heart (so cool), and see other vital organs. The next part was to see the face. He would not cooperate at all! He was face down with his head up against my cervix. He would wiggle around and we could catch a glimpse of his profile but not enough where they could get a picture of it and take measurements of mouth, nose, and eyes. This is important to help rule out any facial abnormalities as well as syndromes such as Down Syndrome. The tech said, while we wait for him to flip, let's look to see what sex this baby is. Thank God his legs were wide open and could show us his little winky. I cried of course, I was so excited. Yet, sad that no one was there with me to share the awesome moment with. I knew Eric would be over the moon. The tech asked that I move around, drink some water, and go see my husband to try and get this baby boy to turn around. I went out to the lobby where Eric and Bella were and smiled and said "it's a boy!!!" Eric's whole face lit up, he was so excited. We both had said, no matter what, we would be so happy. I kept thinking a sister for Bella would be so nice, but at the same time, a boy would make for the perfect family. Of course I knew Eric deep down would love to add a boy to our family :) I really thought this pregnancy was so different from the last, that it must be a boy, but did not have a strong premonition like with Bella.
After some hugging and crying, I did some jumping jacks to move this baby around, went to the restroom and headed back to the room hoping my boy would turn his sweet face around. At that time, Jammie came by so she could hear the news in person. She was super excited! It was nice to have her in the room with me for a while to help me to relax. After she left, the tech came back and took a look at the baby, and again NO LUCK!!! The Dr. came in and said at this point there was nothing we could do except come back at a later time. We had already been there for almost two hours. THey had tried to put me in every position and even used a different machine. Still he would not budge! I am completely bummed at this point because all I wanted to do was make sure my baby was okay before leaving the office :( However, she mentioned that I could have a blood test to see the likelihood that we would have a child with a syndrome. I had originally opted out of this test, because I knew Eric and I wouldn't change our mind about having the baby so it didn't matter to us. However, after not being able to see his face and see that he was okay, I did the blood work. So basically now... we wait. ughhhh! I'm not really too nervous because Bella wouldn't show us her chambers in her heart when I was pregnant with her, and I had to have several ultrasounds to confirm she was okay. SO I think it's just my children.. they don't like to cooperate :) Anyway, all we can do is continue to pray that HE is okay, but at least now we know it's a HE :) I of course will continue to be worried sick until I know for sure he is okay, but I know there is nothing I can do but pray. Not to mention, we are in the middle of moving, and I have way too much packing and cleaning to do to stress even more about it. Needless to say, we are so excited about adding a boy to our already awesome family!
We are still working on names, and think we have one down, but don't want to post it until we are positive, but SOON I promise. Here are some kind of fuzzy pictures of our sweet little man...

A FEW PICTURES OF HIS FACE, JUST NOT CLEAR

FINGERS

HIS SKELETON


A PRETTY CLEAR PICTURE OF HIS HAND ON SIDE OF HIS FACE, AND FACE DOWN

A FUZZY PICTURE OF HIS BOY PARTS.

New Years Eve

Every New Years Eve, we have a couple of close friends over and celebrate the New Year with food and drinks. We have never really like to go out on New Years because of all the crazies on the road, but we always enjoy being with our closest friends to ring in the New year. This New Year, like last, we celebrated Christmas with Jen. Bella got a book and some college fund money, and Bella gave her tickets for Jen and I to go to Mary Poppins ! Yay, so excited! Then our friends Deb & Chris, Annelle & Carlos, Steve, Alexis, Kev, and were surprised by the Tortora's. We had a good spread of snacks and drinks. Bella played with Guiliana and us adults just hung out and had a great time. We also did Karaoke on the Playstation. It was lots of fun! Bella went to bed at about 9:30, and slept through all of us being loud and doing karaoke :) Thanks to all of our best friends for spending the New Year with us. We are looking forward to 2010 and all the changes that will come with it!
















THE NEXT MORNING. BELLA MAKES EVERYONE READ HER HER NEW BOOK FROM AUNTIE KATHERINE "THERE WAS AN OLD LADY WHO SWALLOWED A FLY"

15 week appointment

On New Years eve, I had my 15 week check up. I had lost another pound, although I have NO idea how because all I did was eat over the Christmas break; blood pressure was good, and the heartbeat was nice and strong in the 160's. We have scheduled our BIG ultrasound for January 22nd. This is the one that we can make sure all the anatomy is growing how it should, and hopefully find out what the sex of this baby is.
I have no real assumptions of what this baby's sex is. I know that I feel very different than the first time. I have less nausea but more stomach pains, and heartburn. I am having to pop Tums quite a bit for tummy pains and acid reflux. I am also a lot more exhausted in this 2nd trimester than last time. That may because I have a toddler at home, but I just can't seem to shake this utter exhaustion, to the point where I am finding it really hard to keep my eyes open! I am now at the 16 week point and I am hoping I start to feel better soon! I had caffeine one day and I could swear I felt the baby move :) THat was always my most favorite part of pregnancy last time. So fun!
I have started to talk to Bella about there being a baby in my tummy, as she likes to sit on my tummy a lot and be rough. OF course she doesnt understand, but when I tell her there is a baby in my tummy, she pats my tummy. WE have an exciting road ahead, us Hoovers :)